Lookie Lookie Men
Unlike it's neighbours of Majorca and Ibiza, Menorca does not yet suffer from large number of street traders.

Markets
There are a number of markets throughout the island. The larger ones are held at:
Mahon a daily vegetables, fruit and vegetable market and on Tuesday & Saturday a more general tourist markets.
Ciudadela a daily fruit and vegetables market and on Fridays & Saturday a general tourist market.
Ferrerias Saturday mornings only, a food market and on Tuesdays & Friday a general tourist market.
Es Castell Mondays & Wednesday.
Alayor Thursday.
Es Migjorn Gran Wednesday

Money
The official currency of Spain is the Euro. For more information please see the "Euro" section on this page.

Petrol Stations
You may think it strange to add this section, but when you consider there are only 13 petrol stations on the whole island, I hope that you can then understand the reason for its inclusion. So, for the record here they are
3 in Mahon
1 in Alayor
1 in Mercadal
1 on the road into Fornells
1 in San Luis
1 on Mahon to San Luis road
3 in and around the Ciudadella area
and finally, 2 on the road between Mahon and Alayor

Pickpockets
Minorca, as in every other holiday resort, does have its fair share of pickpockets. Common sense in any crowded areas hold on to any personal belongings. If you do have something stolen you must report it to the local Police within 24 hours if only for insurance purposes.

Public Toilets
There are public toilets in some shopping centres. Other than that, every restaurant and bar will have them for customers use.

Restaurants
The Spanish tend to eat very late compared to the English. So few restaurants tend to get very busy much before 8pm.

Sunbathing
Obvious advice, but the sun in Minorca is very hot. Please be careful and ensure that you cover yourself in a high protection sun cream. Remember you will get very badly burnt even on a cloudy day.

Taxi
In the smaller resorts taxis are not numerous, however, your hotel reception will always call one for you (sometimes for a small charge). Cabs are not always metered, so always agree the price with the driver before getting in.

Telephones
Public telephones are numerous throughout all of Minorca with instructions in several languages. International calls home are cheaper between 10pm and 8am and all day on Sunday. To make a call to the UK dial 00 wait, 44 then dial your full STD number without the first 0. The minimum cost of a call is usually around 2 Euro. International calls can be made from your hotel but may prove to be very expensive.

Tipping
It is customary to tip in Minorca. Normally a tip of around 10% of the total bill is expected.

Tourist Information Offices
There are 2 official tourist information offices on the island in Ciudadela and Mahon, their contact details are:

Plaza de La Catedral
07760
Ciudadela
Tel: 971 38 26 93

Plaça de la Esplanada, 40
07703
Mahón
Tel & Fax: 971 36 37 90

Tourist Tax
Again one of the most popular questions at the moment. Since 1 May 2002 the Government of the Balearic Islands has introduced the much publicised "tourist or green tax". The proceeds of which are to be put towards repairing the damage to the environment the last 40 years of tourism has caused. In reality this will add approx 1 Euro per person, per night, to the cost of your holiday, and will be payable directly to your hotel on arrival in the resort.

Water
The tap water in Minorca has a high mineral content and perhaps it will be best to buy bottled water from the supermarkets. The cost of a 5 litre bottle is around 1 Euro there are two types available "agua con gas" is sparkling mineral water and the more common "agua sin gas" still water. Avoid ice cubes unless you are sure it is made from bottled water, this includes ice in drinks.

Waterparks
The only waterparks, of any size, are in the west of the island. The first is the Aqua Center on main road going into the resort of Cala'n Forcat, but don't expect to find anything like either the Octopus Park in Tenerife or Aquacity in Mallorca, it's not that big and really wouldn't be of much interest to older children. However, the park is extremely clean, and the restaurant is good value. Admission is 8 Euros for children and 12.5 Euros for adults and children over 11. It opens at 10:30am each day and closes at around 6pm. For more information their telephone numbers are 971 38 87 05 or 971 38 82 51, or click here to visit their web site.

The other is the "Aqua Rock" water park at Cala'n Bosch. Admission is a bit pricey at 14 Euro per adult and 7 Euro for a child for a full day, but after 3.30pm it does drop to 6 Euros per adults and 4 Euro for a child. They also charge an extra 3 Euro per sunbed once you are inside.

Working in Menorca
Without a doubt the most popular question we are asked is regarding working here. So, we have created this section which should hopefully answer most of your questions.

Firstly, working in Menorca is not a paid holiday. The bar and restaurant owners work long hours and will not carry passengers.

Secondly, work is becoming harder to find for everybody. If you are genuinely prepared to work hard, come out to the island early in the season on a cheap flight, pick up a local newspapers and follow every lead. If you strike lucky then good luck to you, if not, well you've had a cheap holiday.

A couple of web sites worth looking at before you go are:

Escape Artists gives listings of jobs throughout all of Spain and the Canary Islands.

And also, Balearic Jobs for the very latest information about jobs on the island.